'Makes me appreciate Meghan McCain!' Viewers recoil from Elisabeth Hasselbeck's prayerful praise of Trump

Elisabeth Hasselbeck returned to "The View" as guest host, and social media users had strong reactions.

The religiously conservative former host appeared to slip a brief prayer into her remarks asking for the coronavirus' eradication, and then sparked a clash by praising President Donald Trump's leadership.

“There can be a fine line between what is precaution, right, what is taking precaution and what is panic,” Hasselbeck said. “So I think a lot of it has to be decided. Yes, we’re going to take precautions, we’re going to [use] Purell. Pray that God’s got us in our tomorrows, right, we pray that this coronavirus is extinguished, that it’s stopped in its tracks.”

“We’ve had affected cases, those are serious,” she added. “We’ve had deaths, those are serious. This is not to be taken lightly at all, but we shouldn’t be in a state of panic because what we’re doing, and taking cues from our president, is taking early, strong, bold actions to keep this at bay as much as we possibly can right now. We’re still on the front end of this. We’re on the very front end of this now, and I feel comfortable and confident that because of strong leadership.”

Hasselbeck met pushback from co-hosts Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin, and the show's viewers were astonished.